Other Views: Benefits of cloning stem cells

Posted: April 23, 2014 - 9:52pm | Updated: April 23, 2014 - 11:30pm

Benefits of cloning stem cells

Controversies over stem-cell research are so last decade — or so it seemed until last week.

For the last few years, the promising field of stem-cell research has focused on a technique that skirts various ethical concerns about the treatment of human embryos and the potential to clone whole human beings.

But last week, U.S. and South Korean researchers announced that they went ahead with a different technique, successfully creating stem cells cloned from the normal skin cells of adults. Their work helps to open a new avenue in stem-cell research. But it also could be a step on the way to human reproductive cloning.

Some ethical worries are reasonable, but they are not enough reason to hold back this research.

Since the late 1990s, scientists have held out the prospect of extraordinary new treatments from pluripotent stem cells, which are stem cells that can grow into all sorts of different tissues at researchers’ urging.